EU regulators move against drugmaker Lundbeck

(BRUSSELS) - European Union regulators said Thursday they had launched an antitrust investigation against Danish anti-depressant drugmaker Lundbeck.

The European Commission said it had "reason to believe" the firm may have impeded the sale of cut-price, generic versions of its Citalopram drug within the EU, weighing on national health budgets across the bloc.

Action "to examine potential breaches of EU rules on restrictive business practices and on the abuse of a dominant market position" was underway, a statement said.

Brussels is to investigate "unilateral behaviour and agreements by Lundbeck which may hinder the entry of generic citalopram into markets in the European Economic Area," home to well over half a billion people and the world's biggest market.

The commission's Jonathan Todd told journalists that competition enforcers were concerned at "implications for national health budgets."

"This is a very important issue and the commission intends to get to the bottom of it," he said.

Investigators raided a series of European pharmaceutical giants early in December over suspected competition violations, stepping up a sector-wide probe first launched in January 2008.

It was part of an investigation announced in July into the relationship between companies that patent their products as brand-named medicine, as well as their ties with generic drug producers.

Brussels said the "knowledge acquired" through these raids "has allowed the commission to draw conclusions on where commission action based on competition law could be appropriate and effective.

"The commission has decided that the investigation focusing on Lundbeck's conduct should be dealt with as a matter of priority, and as a result has opened proceedings.

"These proceedings are separate from the sector inquiry," it underlined.

According to a commission report produced last summer, generic drugs cost on average 40 percent less two years after they enter the market and save patients and insurance firms money without compromising on effectiveness.

But some companies have in the past been accused of using patent strategies to stop generic medicines hitting the market, or tying up potential competitors in legal disputes.